If you've spent any time reading the financial pages over the last
few years you would have noticed that the world's big banks are going
crazy. Merger crazy. Citing increased globalization and competition,
big banks have been either buying up smaller fry or merging with equals
to create uber-banks.

All of that spells trouble for smaller banks who haven't yet found
anyone to go to the dance with. Even nations who have barriers up to
foreign banks from entering their markets realize that the banks in
their jurisdictions will suffer unless changes are made. And fast.

Up here in Canada, four banks announced in early 1998 that they too
wished merge. The Royal Bank announced a proposed merger with the Bank
of Montreal in January, followed by a similar announcement by the Toronto-Dominion
Bank and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce a few months later.

From the start it was expected that the banks would have a tough time
receiving federal approval from the Liberal government, a government
which claims to be a friend of industry, but has rarely put the walk
in their talk.

On December 14, Federal Finance Minister Paul Martin announced that
after a negative review from the federal competition bureau, which spotlighted
fears of concentration of ownership and potentially higher fees for
consumers, no mergers between the big banks would be approved until
a new federal review process was brought in by the federal government.

"[W]hereas the merger proponents wanted the mergers to be allowed
in order to change the status quo, we believe the status quo must be
changed before any merger can be considered," Martin said in a
bizarre bit of double talk while justifying his decision.

Martin's decision was a purely political one designed to placate critics
of the proposed mergers in his own party and among the public, hold
out some hope for bank executives who hear the footsteps of European
and American banks behind them, and most importantly, to preserve his
status as the leading candidate to replace current Prime Minister Jean
Chrétien.

His most important justification to prevent the mergers was that consumers
might suffer if the four banks were allowed to merge, a justification
which ignores two important facts. The first is that Canadians only
have six major banks to choose from because of federal government interference
in the past, mostly that of previous Liberal governments.

The second is more philosophical. The banks are private entities who
own their property. They have the right to merge regardless of what
anyone thinks, including their customers who are free to leave and pursue
other avenues of banking. Martin's decision was yet another attack on
capitalism by a government which is nothing more than a collectivist
wolf wrapped in a capitalist sheep's wool.

Americans take note, the restructuring in the bank industry affects
you too. Think CitiBank will the biggest bank forever?

U.S. President Bill Clinton must have loved the movie Wag the Dog,
especially considering how often he followed the script of the movie
in 1998 alone.

In January, the Monica Lewinsky story is broken by Matt Drudge and
leads even the liberal media and Friends of Bill to say that Clinton
may have to resign before his State of the Union address. Within two
weeks, America goes on alert over Iraq.

In June, Linda Tripp is to testify before the grand jury with testimony
which would shock the American public. The morning of her testimony,
however, sees the United States fire two cruise missiles at Iraqi radar
stations. The result is little coverage of Tripp's testimony by the
media.

Three days after an August apology which was widely ridiculed by all,
Clinton launches cruise missile attacks against targets in Sudan and
Afghanistan, claiming to be striking terrorist centers operated by Islamic
militant Osama bin Laden. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
admits on live national television, just thirty minutes after the bombing,
that the attack was neither in response to any imminent threat, nor
targeted any particular person, much less a "conference of terrorists"
as Clinton later claimed. ABC news anchor Cokie Roberts actually uses
the phrase "wagging the dog" on national television.

And to close out the year, Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony
Blair launch a series of attacks against Iraqi targets after United
Nations inspectors were stopped once again from performing their duties.
After claims by administration officials that the attacks were decided
upon after a United Nations report detailing Iraqi intransigence, the
Washington Post learned and reported that the attacks were actually
given the green light several days before the report was released.
The attacks, of course, begin on the eve of the House Judiciary Committee's
vote on four articles of impeachment against Clinton.

Does Bill Clinton use the U.S. military to deflect attention from his
crimes and peccadilloes? Is Saddam Hussein a convenient straw man to
be set up every time the firestorm of controversy threatens to engulf
the Clinton administration? Do the Iraqi people suffer so that Clinton
may yet govern?

It says a lot about Clinton's character and past that many people ask
those questions before they praise the bravery of U.S. forces in the
Persian Gulf.

The answers to the three questions posed you will have to come up with.
Depending on the answers, the doubts you may have will be yours as well.

There is an
old Serbian proverb that says vinegar in freedom tastes better than
honey in slavery. This award is meant for events and people Enter
Stage Right considers to be positive.

We at Enter Stage Right won't be too surprised if we get tagged
with a high volume of e-mail over the following selection for the Vinegar
in Freedom Award, in fact, we would welcome it. Direct all complaints
or comments to editor@enterstageright.com.
Call us Rockefeller Republicans, compassionate conservatives or handles
which are less polite. We can handle it.

Steve Dunlap had a problem. Dunlap is a man who began selling his father's
watermelons at age eight and who later became rich from novelty inventions.
The 42-year old decided to open a small resort after retiring with his
gains. Plans were drawn up with the help of a developer and Dunlap went
to local bankers for financing.

There was one slight problem. Dunlap's resort would have targeted gays
and lesbians as its clientele. The bankers got cold feet and declined
to invest money.

Dunlap, who is gay, figured that if bankers were afraid to touch a
project developed by a prosperous gay, then the same thing must also
be happening to other gays and lesbians. He decided to do something
about it.

Specifically, he decided to open a bank which would cater to the gay
and lesbian community. Creating a bank for such a geographically widespread
market niche would normally be difficult but Dunlap decided to do it
through the Internet (http://www.g-lbank.com).

"The Internet now allows us to deliver to this community without
having bricks and mortar," Dunlap stated recently. "It actually
allows me to put a bank branch in every house where there is a computer."

Dunlap's bank, the G&L Bank, which pending approval from federal
regulators would be the only bank in the United States -- and perhaps
the world -- that catered to homosexuals and one of the few Internet-only
banks.

Being a businessman, Dunlap isn't thick. All are welcome to open accounts
and the staff of the bank itself has a mixed staff of gays, lesbians
and heterosexuals. The bank's president, Kathy Griffith, herself is
a heterosexual.

What causes our admiration is that Dunlap could have easily cried discrimination
and put his energy into giving business to America's already gigantic
trial lawyer industry. Instead, Dunlap decided to use some of that entrepreneurial
spirit that sometimes seems to be on the decline these days and solve
the problem with old fashioned work. In America, it's easier today to
take on the cloak of the victim than it is to simply solve the problem
yourself.

Dunlap deserves recognition for the fact that instead of whining to
the government about people using their freedom to associate with who
they please, he decided to roll up his sleeves and work for his
success. A market-based solution to a market-based problem. That's an
American value if there was ever one.